


i got that red lip classic thing that you like

by niallszayn



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/F, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 09:12:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3686601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niallszayn/pseuds/niallszayn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>there's this girl zayn sees on the train every day that she'd really like to talk to, but they've got some kind of routine going on that unfortunately doesn't involve any talking - yet</p>
            </blockquote>





	i got that red lip classic thing that you like

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Star55](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star55/gifts).



> guess what - another [tumblr post](http://kissingziall.tumblr.com/post/91374124610/sarcastic-snowflake-so-every-morning-i-get-off) inspired ficlet! i started this ages ago and never really got very far, until i decided to change it up a little bit and turn it into the genderswap birthday present for [Star](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Star55)...this is what happened. happy birthday, Star!!  
> i had this planned for a long while and it was finished before zayn even left tour, but i'm still gonna use this as my chance to say that i'm not going anywhere anytime soon - i'm here to stay, and i'm not gonna let ziall die! i hope most of you choose to do the same. it's been a hard few weeks, but we'll get through this :)  
> title is from _style_ by taylor swift

It had gotten to a point where Zayn kind of looked forward to this moment, stepping off the train and checking to see how far ahead of her the blonde girl was this time. It was the same every day, had been the same for two months, she was three steps ahead every day, without fail.

Zayn wasn't sure what she liked so much about that - except maybe the fact that the girl from behind was a very nice view - but she looked forward to it either way, even if they never interacted.

She only got to enjoy the view for a tiny part of her 20-minute-walk to work, since there was a traffic light about two minutes away from the train station and the three steps advance the girl had meant she got to cross it while Zayn had to wait. That was alright though, those two minutes were Zayn's favourite part of the day and she wouldn't trade them for the world.

She'd thought about speeding up and crossing the light too, so that she'd be able to see where the girl was going at least, but she'd quickly discarded that idea again. She'd only look like a stalker running after a stranger like that, and she didn't want to endanger the "arrangement" they had. This way she got to stare at her on the train while she was pretending to read or text or be otherwise busy and then on their walk to the street corner with the traffic light.

Sometimes she felt like a creeper for it, but never enough to do anything about it.

"Why don't you just ask her out?" her friend Louis tended to sigh when Zayn had gushed about blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes and sunshine smiles one too many times again.

"What am I supposed to say? 'Hey, I've been staring at you longingly for a long time, wanna go out for dinner?'? Don't think that'd go down very well."

"Zayn, you've been on the same train with the girl for over two months, I'm sure you'd find a different approach", Harry had joined in one time. "It's not that difficult."

"That's rich coming from you", Zayn had laughed. "Do I have to remind you how long it took the two of you to get your shit together?"

Harry and Louis had looked at each other a bit sheepishly but mostly fondly and Zayn had kind of wanted to vomit at their cuteness, but at least they'd left her alone. For the time being at least.

Zayn couldn't say why she'd never tried talking to the girl. It'd be easy, she got on the train before Zayn did, since she was always already sitting in the exact same car, and Zayn could technically just sit down next to her, or at least opposite her.

It wouldn't even be that surprising, they were roughly the same age and there was nothing wrong with making friends on a train.

Still, she'd never done it and she didn't think she ever would. Zayn thought it was because she was afraid it'd destroy the magic of what they had.

There was no way she was telling Harry and Louis that though.

Long story short, to say Zayn was confused when she didn't see the blond head in front of her one day was an understatement.

She was one hundred percent sure she'd been on the train, because she'd admired her laughter as she was talking to someone on the phone. Zayn shook her head at herself and started walking. There was no way she could be that focused on someone she'd never talked to.

And then, just a couple of metres away from the traffic lights, she could hear the sound of someone running behind her. 

Zayn looked to her left and there she was, running past her with that stupidly pretty grin (aimed at Zayn!) and sprinting across the street just before the lights turned red. 

She stopped on the other side and turned around to lift her hand in a half wave to Zayn. 

"I've been winning for two months now, can't stop now", her Irish brogue rang over to Zayn, stunning her slightly. This was the first time they'd interacted. "Have a good day, see you tomorrow!" 

Zayn just stared at her for a second and then felt the laughter bubbling up in her chest, making its way out until she laughed her full laugh, all crinkly eyes and tongue pressing against her teeth. 

The girl laughed too and then turned away with another wave, leaving Zayn at the street corner to wonder how this girl had so simply managed to make her laugh her most private laugh. 

She couldn't stop thinking about it the whole day, even when she was supposed to focus on her work. 

In the evening, she met up with Louis and Harry as they often did, but her mind was still elsewhere, and they obviously noticed. "This is like the fifth time today you've completely zoned out, what is going on?" Louis asked, waving her hand in front of Zayn's face. 

"Sorry, it's nothing." 

"Nice try", Harry grinned. "Come on, spill." 

Zayn sighed. "You spend too much time with Louis, Harry. I don't have anything to spill." 

"It's about that girl again, isn't it?" Louis smirked. "The girl on the train? You've got that look you always get when you think about her." 

Zayn stared at her. She had a _look_ for a girl whose name she didn't even know?  

"So is it about her?" Harry insisted. 

Zayn looked down at her hands and shrugged. "I kind of talked to her today? Or, well, she talked to me." 

"What?" Louis sounded incredulous. "How -? What changed your mind?" 

Zayn sighed again and recounted what had happened that morning to her friends.

“But that's a start!” Harry said encouragingly. “You've broken the ice so to speak, now you just gotta take that opening.”

“But how?” Zayn whined.

“However the fuck you want to”, Louis said. “You just have to actually do something or she'll think you're not interested.”

“I don't even know if _she's_ interested though!”

“You don't have to go up to her and snog her right away!” Louis sounded frustrated. “Just talk to her, for god’s sake. Get her name, whatever. Everything's better than this pathetic pining you've been doing.”

Zayn thought that Louis probably had a point, even though she wouldn't admit that to her face. Louis probably knew anyway.

But when she got to the station the next morning, she was confident she'd be able to talk to her. At least until the train rolled in, that was. Staring at the door she stepped through every morning, Zayn didn't feel confident at all anymore. What was she even supposed to say?

She took a deep breath and figured if she would at least smile at her today it'd already be a success. Zayn got on the train, and there she was, blond hair tied into a ponytail, wearing another one of her white long sleeved t-shirts, this one with green sleeves. It made Zayn wonder what she worked as or what she took the train for every day. Zayn had to dress up for her job at the office, she was wearing a blouse and a pencil skirt with pumps today too. It did make her legs look pretty amazing though, even if she couldn’t wear proper high heels due to the long walk to work.

The skinny jeans the blonde girl liked to wear were pretty great too though, Zayn had had plenty of chances to admire her lovely legs in them when she stretched them out on the train, or her cute little butt when she was walking in front of her.

Today, she wasn't stretching her legs out though, and she wasn’t on her phone either, or looking out of the window. Her legs were pulled up to her chest and her eyes were on Zayn, watching her almost expectantly. Nervously, Zayn sent a small smile her way and was again startled by the brilliancy of the answering grin she got. God, she was beautiful.

Zayn sat down not too far from the girl, which might not have been the greatest idea she'd ever had because this way, she kept sneaking glances at her over her book and she hadn't read a single page yet.

She was pretty sure she'd been caught staring at least twice though, which was embarrassing even though she'd looked away quickly each time. Louis was probably right, this was pathetic. She should just talk to her.

Just as she'd had that thought she heard a sigh and looked up, eyes growing wide when the girl got up and walked – towards her. Zayn couldn’t stop looking at her even when she got closer and closer, caught between excitement and fear. She had no idea what was gonna happen.

“Scoot over”, she said when she was next to where Zayn was sitting and Zayn did, watching stunned how she plopped down onto the seat Zayn had still sat on a few seconds ago. She pulled one of her legs up and folded it underneath her, turning to face Zayn.

“Tell me if I've got this totally wrong”, the girl said, and her eyes were _so_ blue close up, “but I'm Niall and I'd like to take you out some time.”

**6 months later**

“Do you still race each other to that traffic light?” Harry asks. She's using Niall's brush to comb through her locks instead of helping but no one can ever order Harry around or be mad at her, so they let her even though Liam keeps giving her the most exasperated look she can muster up.

“Nah, I had to declare Niall winner for life”, Zayn says. Instead of racing each other, they walk hand in hand for as long as they can before they have to separate on the other side of the road. “Because she's the one who asked me out.”

“Not for lack of trying on my part”, Louis pipes up, setting down the heavy box she's been carrying. “I did my best to motivate Zayn.”

“I was plenty motivated”, Zayn protests. “I'm just shy and Niall intimidated me.”

“I still don't get how anyone could be intimidated by Niall”, Harry mumbles.

“Well, she's only the most beautiful girl I've ever seen?”

Niall wraps her arms around Zayn from the back, startling the darker girl who didn’t notice her girlfriend coming in. “I appreciate the compliment”, she murmurs, lips against Zayn's skin next to the strap of her tank top. “But I don't think you've ever looked into a mirror.”

Zayn snorts and turns around, arms going around Niall's neck. She nudges their noses together softly before goes in for a quick kiss. Niall makes a protesting noise when Zayn goes to pull away and tightens her grip on Zayn's hips, tilting her head to keep their lips connected and deepen the kiss.

“No, no, no.” That's Liam’s voice and it's uncomfortably close. “No snogging before we leave. We're here to help you move, not to do all the work while you make out.”

“Well, it's our flat so we can do however we bloody please.” Niall doesn't loosen her hold on Zayn and Zayn presses her face to her girlfriend’s neck, slightly sweaty from all the hard work. Their flat. She likes the sound of that.

Zayn starts wiping the smudge of her own red lipstick around Niall’s mouth away anyway, because she doesn’t feel like doing the rest by themselves. Those are heavy boxes, after all. Niall whines and pouts a little but eventually lets go because she knows as well as Zayn that their stuff would just end up standing around in boxes for days or weeks if they don’t get it done now.

“Do you think you would’ve ever asked me out if I hadn’t done it first?” Niall asks when they’re trying to get the sofa, the last piece of furniture, up the narrow stairs a bit later.

“I’m sure I would’ve found the courage”, Zayn says. “I mean, it would’ve maybe taken me a few more days because I’d decided to take it day by day, but I liked you far too much already to let you get away.”

Niall smiles. “There was never any hope for me either, to be honest. It was the red lips, I think. Got me from day one and once I’d seen you smile at me there was no turning back.”

“Was that why you ran past me that one day?” Zayn laughs.

“No, that was actually the first time you ever smiled at me. I made you laugh, remember?” Niall looks unbearably fond and Zayn wishes there wasn’t a sofa between them. They’re not even moving at the moment, just blocking the stairway with the thing. “Anyway, I jogged past you because I’d been watching you for two months and was sorta desperate to get a reaction from you.”

Zayn laughs again. “We’re so stupid. We could’ve sped up the whole process for like two months.”

Niall shrugs. “We’re here now, though, so I don’t really care. I love you, and we’re moving in together.”

“I love you, too” Zayn says softly and grips the sofa again. “And now help me get this thing into our flat so we can throw the others out and make good use of it. Or the bed, I’m pretty sure Louis and Liam carried that upstairs earlier and I’m not picky about where we do it first.”

Niall’s heat induced flush spreads down to the collar of her flimsy top and she licks her lips, making Zayn groan quietly. She throws a smirk Zayn’s way and lifts her end of the sofa up. “Hurry up then, petal.”


End file.
